We Regret to Inform You: Trauma Notifications 

Voiceover 

00:00 

Welcome to The Beat—a podcast series from the COPS Office at the Department of Justice. Featuring 

interviews with experts from a varied field of disciplines, The Beat provides law enforcement with the 

latest developments and trending topics in community policing. 

Jennifer Donelan 

00:16 

Welcome to The Beat. I’m your host, Jennifer Donelan. Our episode today focuses on the somber, 

challenging, emotionally impactful and often unsupported process of notifying next of kin that their 

loved one has either died or suffered a traumatic physical injury due to criminal violence or an accident. 

We are pleased to have Dr. Staci Beers as a guest, honored. Dr. Beers is one of the nation’s foremost 

experts on trauma notifications. She’s a Victim Services Coordinator with the FBI’s Victim Services 

Division. She also has the privilege of serving as a crisis response canine handler with the FBI. This is a 

real treat. I can’t tell you how excited, Dr. Beers, that we are to have you. Welcome to The Beat. 

Dr. Staci Beers 

01:03 

Thank you so much for having me. 

Donelan 

01:05 

Absolutely. So, before we get to the topic and the subject of notifications, I always like to start these off 

with the same question: How did you get into the world of victim services? Like what’s the background? 

What’s the path, and how it got you here? 

Beers 

01:19 

So, I was a criminal justice minor in college and learned a lot about the criminal and the criminal justice 

system. There really wasn’t a focus on victims at that time, and so I started to volunteer at a rape crisis 

center and really found my niche supporting victims of different violent crimes. I went on to get my 

master’s degree in social work so I could continue that effort and I was very lucky to work at an agency 

that served crime victims. Different kinds of victims, whether it’s homicide, sexual assault, child abuse, a 

robbery, things like that. 

I started our first homicide response team in Pennsylvania. And that’s really where I started to see that 

there wasn’t much training that law enforcement receives related to death notifications / trauma 

notifications. So, I’ve worked in the criminal justice system in many different agencies from a law 

enforcement background to prosecution, probation, parole, child advocacy. And then 12 years ago, I 

joined the FBI’s Victim Services Division. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Donelan 

02:17 

So, you really have seen sort of the entire world from the response, which would be the local police, to 

all the services that follow along that continuum through the prosecution process and all of that. It 

seems to me you’ve had the 360-degree view. 

Beers 

02:35 

Yeah, and now I’m in the federal system, which is a very interesting perspective as well. And it’s really 

nice to kind of bring all of that together. 

Donelan 

02:41 

So, I want to spend most of our time talking about the training element and sort of the background on 

that, but let’s start off with the next of kin notification. When we’re talking about that throughout this 

episode, what does that mean? 

Beers 

02:54 

So, the next of kin can be a variety of different individuals, you know, you obviously have your biological 

family, but you also have chosen family and we learned that in Pulse. Not every family member was 

biological; it was chosen family. So, we need to be cognizant about how family is really defined and so 

for us, you know, we really kind of look at the wide aperture. So, when we’re looking at a situation when 

we’re doing a trauma notification, we’re really trying to dissect who’s the family. 

We do that with our analysts to see, “Okay, like, what’s that circle look like? If we drop a pebble in the 

pond, what does that look like?” Now, that doesn’t mean we’re going out notifying 10 family members 

for a victim. That’s not what that means. But we really try to figure out, “Okay, is there some cultural 

issues we should be aware of in this particular situation?” Pulse really, really highlighted that for us. And 

so, you know, who is the closest person to that deceased individual. And it could be, you know, your 

legal next of kin, which could be mom, dad, spouse, child, that sort of thing, but we don’t just keep it to 

that. We really do look at a wider aperture when we’re talking about next of kin. 

Donelan 

03:55 

So, let’s go to your personal experience and then what you saw as you progressed throughout your 

career. But talk about those first few moments or first experiences where you said, “Uh-oh, there’s a 

gap here. We’ve got a really huge missing element.” There is no training for folks with this very delicate, 

very highly charged emotional exercise, so to say. It’s impactful for not only the people who are getting 

the news, but for the people who are delivering the news as well. Do you recall those moments where 

you were like, “Oh, no. We’ve got a problem. We’ve got to fill this gap?” 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beers 

04:32 

Yeah, absolutely, because what we know is that when we’re going to do a death notification / trauma 

notification, we’re trying to change the language now, because we don’t always do notifications when

somebody is deceased. We can use this model to notify families that their child has been exploited or

that their loved one has been kidnapped, those sorts of things, so we’re really trying to change the

language around this. But I remember when I started in Victim Services and going out with law

enforcement, I knew that I was going to be changing someone’s life forever and there was a lot of 

heaviness and my anxiety was very, very high. 

And then I’m partnered with law enforcement who are always in control. They’re definitely focused. 

They’re highly trained, and they were as nervous as I was. And I’m thinking to myself, “Don’t you all get 

training?” And what we learned is that a lot of times there isn’t training in law enforcement academies. 

They’re focused on the tactical training, safety, which I completely understand. And yet, there’s this

other piece that if you’re anxious going out to do a trauma notification, victims pick up on that pretty 

quickly. And you’re the one that needs to have some semblance of order, right? 

So, one of the things we started to do was really look at, “Okay, how can we get this information out?” 

And what I will say is, after the Navy Yard shootings several years ago, we definitely identified a gap.

When we have been asked as the FBI to come in and assist local authorities with doing death

notifications—I want to be really clear that the FBI doesn’t do fatality management. It’s not what we do.

That’s the coroner. It’s the medical examiner’s office, and it’s also local law enforcement.

And yet, when we have these mass violence incidents, sometimes, local authorities will come and ask us, 

“Can you help us do, you know, these trauma notifications?” All of our victim specialists—we have 171 

victim specialists in all 56 field offices have this training—they know how to do it. They can do a trauma 

notification. And yet, there’s more to it and we have a team of two. It’s always a law enforcement leader 

or an officer or an agent, whoever that may be partnered with one of our victim specialists. And so, we 

thought, “Hmm, really, let’s focus on how can we do a training for the larger law enforcement world.” 

And so, we were very lucky that through our active shooter initiative, through our Office of Partner 

Engagement, that we receive funding to develop an online platform that is free of charge for officers to 

take this training. It’s really designed for law enforcement agencies to be able to pull people from the 

road to take it. It takes about an hour. People can go as in depth or as on the surface as they would like. 

And so, it goes through the four-step model. It demonstrates the model in a training video. There’s a lot 

of resources at the end, and so that’s where we started with this. 

To date—we launched this in 2015; Director Comey, at the time, launched this during National Crime 

Victims’ Rights week in April of 2015. To date, we have around 30,000 allied professionals who’ve taken

this training. So, we’re really excited about the breadth and width of where this has gone. Obviously, we

would love to see more. So, hopefully, with this podcast we’ll get there.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Donelan 

07:26 

And so, the name of the training, it’s the FBI’s Trauma Notification course, it’s called, “We Regret to 

Inform You.” 

Beers 

07:32 

Yes. 

Donelan 

07:32 

Okay. And as you mentioned, it’s free of charge. 

Beers 

07:35 

It’s free. Yes, it’s absolutely available online free of charge. People can take it on their cell phones, you 

know, wherever they have access, you know, capabilities to reach out. And it can be found at 

www.deathnotification.psu.edu. 

Donelan 

07:52 

And we’ll revisit that again at the end of the episode. I don’t want to be remiss in the fact that this is a 

project that you’ve worked hand-in-hand—the FBI has worked hand-in-hand—with Penn State 

University. Tell me about that. 

Beers 

08:05 

So, our Office of Partner Engagement had a relationship with them surrounding their active shooter 

initiative. They did a lot of videos and training together. And so, when we decided to develop an online 

platform, our Office of Partner Engagement connected us with Penn State University, who is very happy 

to assist us. And so, the training is actually hosted on their servers and all the updates and things like 

that, Penn State helps us with regularly. 

Donelan 

08:32 

Let me dial back and talk about the death notification. So, for those who haven’t really considered it— 

and I don’t know if you would liken it to a science. What would you liken it to? 

Beers 

08:41 

It’s a process, and it’s a four-step process. And what we found is that putting a process around it really 

allows those of us doing the notifications to really focus on the steps. This is not a model that the FBI 

developed. We looked at many different models and we really focused and ended up on the Mothers 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Against Drunk Driving four-step process. It’s evidence informed. They’ve used it for many, many years. 

And I will also tell you that Concerns of Police Survivors shares this model with law enforcement when 

they do line of duty deaths and so it was a natural fit for us. So, the four-step model is that of Mothers 

Against Drunk Driving. 

Donelan 

09:18 

Let’s go a little bit into some of that, because it’s not just as simple as you’re going to tell someone that 

their loved one died. It’s not just knocking on the door and delivering the news. 

Beers 

09:28 

Correct. 

Donelan 

09:29 

It’s the words you choose to use. It’s who you have with you. Can you go into some of those details? 

Beers 

09:33 

Absolutely. So, the first step is planning, the second step is preparation, the third step is delivery, which 

is the knocking on the door, and the fourth step is follow-up. What we found is that people don’t spend 

enough time doing the planning and preparation, we just literally get in a car and go, and that’s step 

three. So, when we look at the first two steps, the planning and the preparation, the planning involves 

how was the victim identified? Do you know how victims are identified in your jurisdiction? Is it forensic 

identification? Is it visual identification? The one thing we know is that you have to be 100 percent 

certain on how the individual was identified because it’s the first question that the family will ask. It’s 

also important because the last thing you want to do is do an inadvertent notification that it’s the wrong 

person, so we want to make sure we know how the victim was identified. 

The second piece of that is, “Okay, so who’s your team? What does your team look like? If you are going 

out into a community that may speak different languages, do you have somebody on your team that can 

communicate in that language?” Because that is really important when people are in crisis. Even though 

they could be bilingual or trilingual, sometimes they are more comfortable speaking in their native 

language. And so really looking at the makeup of the community that you are going out to support and 

provide this notification is really key. 

We’re also looking at, “Okay, so what are your SOPs? What are your standard operating procedures in 

your community? Who’s supposed to do the notifications? You know, who does it? What does it look 

like? You know, who pronounces death in your community?” Because it varies. It really varies between 

different jurisdictions. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also want to know how do you identify the next of kin to your original question, like who are they or 

where do they live? If they don’t live in our certain area, well, then who can make the notification? 

What we know is that most notifications are made telephonically. That is not best practice for a lot of 

reasons. One on which, we all live on our cell phones, so we don’t really know where people are. They 

could be at a child’s daycare. They could be in the grocery store. They could be driving down the 

highway, and they could have a major medical issue. That is a problem. But that is the number one way 

that people in general are notified about the death of their loved one. 

So, it’s our perspective that we try to do an in-person notification at all times. Part of this process is we 

also have a remote notification process and that’s part of the delivery. But saying that, you know, we 

also want to make sure when we’re preparing to do these, we want to know as much as possible about 

the next of kin. Things such as at the address where we’re going, are there officer safety issues? Are 

there child protection issues? Were there medical calls for service, because if there were lots of medical 

calls for service at that particular address, maybe I want a medic around the corner waiting because God 

forbid something happens and that person has a medical reaction. So, we really look at the large scope 

of that. 

Additionally, we want to look at what are the emotional and physical responses to trauma that are 

common. People have a variety of different reactions and, you know, sometimes people aren’t 

comfortable with those reactions, so we talk about it in the training so that they get a little bit more 

comfortable. So, those are the first two steps and by the time people go to the delivery, they should 

have their entire script and their entire process ready so that when they make that knock on the door, 

they’re able to deliver that notification in a very informed, professional, and dignified manner. 

Donelan 

12:51 

You know, as you explained step one and step two and you described that the normal process or the 

sort of the standard, old-fashioned way of doing things is jump in the car and go— 

Beers 

13:00 

Mm-hmm. 

Donelan 

13:00 

—but that’s step three, just that alone highlights for people that there’s so much more that needs to go 

into these trauma notifications. If jumping in the car is step three, you’ve skipped two entire steps that 

are so in depth and so important. But it’s usually—and correct me if I’m wrong here or go into further 

detail—why have we been resorting to just jumping in the car? Why haven’t we been stopping and 

thinking about these things? Is it time? We need to get those notifications done and we don’t have time 

to do those things? 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beers 

13:32 

I think it’s timing, but I also think that we, in law enforcement, are very reactionary, right? Law 

enforcement runs into things that most people don’t, so does firefighters. There’s a reason they call 

them first responders, right? And again, it’s not a criticism. People may say, “Well, Staci, who has time to 

do the planning and preparation?” You can do that in a very short amount of time. This does not take 

hours to do. Most law enforcement agencies, you go right into your communication center, your com 

center, boom, run the address, you’re rocking and rolling. You could be on the road already going out to 

that address getting that information. We did it all the time in my former department. 

And so, saying that, even though I’m talking about step one and two, these things don’t take hours to do 

because in mass violence incidents, we’re always up against the clock because the media is reporting, 

right? So, we want to make sure that we’re getting out there. So, this process actually is not overly time 

intensive. It’s a thoughtful process. So, yeah, to your point, I think that’s why. We’re first responders, 

and we’re used to getting out there and getting ahead of things, especially in a traumatic situation. 

Donelan 

14:28 

So, you took the words right out of my mouth, because I was immediately thinking, and I’m so glad that 

you’re hitting on the fact that this doesn’t take a lot of time because the media... You don’t want 

families finding out on the news or on a tweet that their loved one has died. And I know everybody is 

pushing to make sure that doesn’t happen. So, it is that like go, go, go, go, go, but what you’re 

describing, yes, at first glance, it does sound like, “Well, that’s a lot of time. I don’t have time for that.” 

Beers 

14:55 

Exactly. 

Donelan 

14:55 

But that’s not the point. 

Beers 

14:56 

No. 

Donelan 

14:57 

It’s just stopping and thinking. It’s awareness. It’s reading the room. It’s walking in with knowledge 

versus just walking in cold, it sounds like to me. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beers 

15:05 

Well, and the thing is we know that information is power, so the more information that we’re armed 

with, the more in control we can feel when we go out to do these notifications. So, we can control what 

we say, right, and how we put the information out there. We can’t control other people, so we just have 

to be prepared for the actual reaction. And the other thing is, when we talk about delivery, it’s a very 

simplified process. We’re not going into great detail. We’re confirming who is at the door. That they’re 

the next of kin. We ask to come into the house and sit down. And the reason we do that is because we 

want to protect somebody’s privacy. 

We ask people to sit down because we don’t want them to fall down. And then, very simply, we tell 

them in one or two sentences: “There’s been an active shooter incident and your son—say the name— 

has died as a result of his injuries that was sustained at this incident.” And then that’s it, like that is it. 

You don’t need to fill the space. You don’t have to use big words. Very simplified language, because 

when people are in crisis, they can’t hear a lot of noise. 

The other thing in this model is we have a primary and we have a support in our team. The primary is 

the only person talking and, generally, that’s a law enforcement officer and the reason for that is 

because we don’t want people cross talking over each other. We don’t want any confusion. So, the 

primary person is the one doing the notification and the support person is really doing the assessment. 

You know, are there kids in the house? Are there older adults in the house? You know, are there pets in 

the house? Are there things in front of us that maybe we need to remove, so they’re not grabbing a 

candlestick and throwing it because there’s a lot of different responses. 

And then that support person is there to really provide ongoing services. A lot of times it’s a victim 

specialist, a victim advocate within a law enforcement agency. And so, that person really is providing a 

lot of the support as well as the follow-up. 

Donelan 

16:45 

Would it be correct then, you’ve got the two person team going in and the one who’s delivering the 

message, the to-the-point, very clear message, while the other person, the support person, initially is 

doing the other things that the other person can’t do, because they’re eye-contact delivering this 

message. They’re visually scanning the room. 

Beers 

17:03 

Yes. 

Donelan 

17:03 

They’re looking out for issues, that sort of thing, so that the other person can concentrate on just talking 

to whomever is in front of them that they’re delivering this news to? 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beers 

17:12 

Yes, that’s exactly right. 

Donelan 

17:14 

Talk to me about, you know, agencies or someone who you’ve taken through this, right, and sort of the 

initial reactions and then sort of the end product. Like, did you see the light bulbs go off? Has it made 

things easier? What kind of feedback have you been getting? 

Beers 

17:29 

So, we got a lot of positive feedback about the online training. What we actually got a lot of feedback 

about also is that people were hungry for more information. So, it was great, because this information 

was launched and I’m like, “We did it.” And then there was like, “Well, we want more.” So, what we’ve 

done over the past several years, the FBI has led an initiative called the Trauma Notification Team within 

our own home. And so, it’s our mission to train a team of individuals, special agents, task force officers, 

certainly our victim specialists within all 56 divisions, so that if we are asked to do a notification by local 

law enforcement in, let’s say, a mass violence incident, we have teams that are ready to go that can be 

force multipliers. 

Of course, we would never forward lean, it would always be at the request of local law enforcement, but 

yesterday, we trained our 15th division out of 56, so I’m very happy about that. We have quite a few 

more in the queue, but this training, it takes the four-step process, and we actually apply it to a scenario. 

And so, we don’t do role-plays, but what this training does is it takes that four-step model, it applies it to 

10 scenarios that are real scenarios and each of those scenarios are culturally based. So, we have 

situations that we present that have language barriers, international considerations, older adults, so we 

have a variety of different vignettes. 

And one of the things that the biggest compliments that we’ve got about this is that it’s real. It’s just not 

made up and there’s a lot of depth in this scenario. So, basically, what we do is we teach it, they do it, 

and then they present it back to us. And we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback about that. We’ve also 

trained three external communities at this point. Some law enforcement, some emergency 

management, and what’s really consistent in the evaluations and also the pre- and post-tests is that 

applying the model to real life situations really helps the learning curve. 

Donelan 

19:21 

You mentioned language, et cetera. Let’s talk a little bit more about that and the different scenario and 

the fact that it is real. You do have to be open and honest about how people... Like there’s textbook, but 

then there’s real life, right? We may be in a neighborhood where they don’t trust the police, so a 

uniformed officer walking into that house, you’re already starting off on the wrong foot. Sexual 

orientation, you know, all those different things, does that all take that into account? 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beers 

19:49 

It does and one of the things that we teach in this model in the planning and preparedness is know your 

community. Know what historical traumas have happened in that community. Know what racial traumas 

have happened in that community. Know if there’s any prior traumatic experiences, so look at all the 

mass violence incidents we’ve had, right, around the country over the past few years. If we have to go 

back into those communities, you know, and most of these death notifications, frankly, these are your 

homicides, they’re your motor vehicle accidents, your suicides, your overdoses. That is generally what 

law enforcement, you know, faces every single day. 

They’re not facing these mass violence incidents, but our perspective is if they use this four-step model 

in their daily work, if a mass violence incident occurs in their jurisdiction, they’re prepared to go out and 

do these notifications. But again, knowing their community, meeting their community where they’re at, 

really, really important. Because to your point, if we don’t recognize the pre-trauma equilibrium that 

exists in that community before we walk in, then we’re not prepared. And so, that is something we very 

much talk about in this training, and it’s very much ingrained in the scenarios. 

Donelan 

20:53 

And do you think people overestimate or underestimate the impact of that first meeting? I mean, the 

families in so many of these cases, and I’m using families again, you mentioned that the next of kin 

notification may be being made to someone beyond family member, but let’s just talk about that, as an 

example. That first meeting, that initial notification, this is a family, for the most part, with 

investigations. You’re going to be dealing with throughout the investigation. 

Beers 

21:18 

That’s correct. 

Donelan 

21:19 

And that’s your first starting point. I mean, it seems so key that you have to do everything to make sure 

that it can go as well as it can go. 

Beers 

21:26 

That’s a really good point and we really talk a little bit about this, because it’s your first point when 

you’re meeting someone, right? And law enforcement talks about, you know, building rapport, whether 

it’s with a subject, a victim, whoever. Their first interaction is really planning about how they’re going to 

build rapport. And so, I don’t think it’s really given much thought. We just go out. We do the 

notification. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, again, victims are volunteers. They do not have to talk with us. We need victims sometimes 

for investigations, so if we don’t get this right, you’ve got one chance to do it right. If you don’t get this 

right, they don’t need to cooperate. They don’t need to talk with us. And you know, I go back to talk and 

saying, you know, the first step in getting this right is getting trained. And that’s our perspective. 

Donelan 

22:07 

And it cannot be underestimated. So, let’s talk about the actual deliverers, the message bearers, 

supporting them. You hear these stories for those who are willing to talk about them. Officers who’ve 

had to turn around and notify a family, it can be so traumatic for the officer. You know, it’s a moment 

that they live with forever. Is there any sort of acknowledgement of that or provision to try and help 

officers or detectives or whoever it is that’s going into these situations? 

Beers 

22:41 

So, part of this model, I guess, I could say it’s a five-step model, though it’s really not an original part, 

but it’s called post notification recap. So, after the death notification and the trauma notification is 

done, you know, getting in the car together, the team driving back to their headquarters or going to 

their next call—that’s the time to process it. What we know, research has shown us, is when we talk it 

out, it gets out of our subconscious and we kind of put it out in the universe, we don’t perseverate on it. 

So, does that mean that some will impact us more than others? Absolutely. Some things are too close to 

home. One of the things we always say to our teams is that we want you here because you’re 

volunteers, not voluntold. For example, if someone is doing a trauma notification involving a small child 

and maybe they have a small child in their life, that may not be a good fit. And it doesn’t mean they 

can’t do it, but it’s all about being able to say, “You know what? I’m not going to raise my hand for that.” 

And again, that’s really hard to teach first responders because they’re so used to running into things. But 

sometimes we need to take a pause and say, “Are we the right person to do this?” I think of line of duty 

deaths, you know. We’ve had a lot of law enforcement who have experienced line of duty death, 

unfortunately. 

And you have folks that are, you know, they’re best friends in the department thinking, “Okay, I need to 

be doing a death notification, because the spouse knows me.” And, you know, while I wouldn’t say 

that’s not true, what I will say is, you know, if that spouse hears your voice, and you are the one making 

the notification, every time they hear your voice, years down the road, because we know law 

enforcement supports families forever, they could be taken back to that time where you notified them. 

And so, I’m not saying it’s not a good perspective. What I am saying is that it’s something to be 

considerate of because we know that we want the best, right, for the families that we work with, and 

yet that might not be the best. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, being able to actually take the time and think about, “What’s the impact on me?” And when it’s a 

situation that’s close to home, “What’s going to be the long-term impact with that family?” And what 

that looks like, it could be, you know, your best friend is the support person and the leader, the chief, 

whoever it is making that notification is the primary. So, that support person can continue to support 

the person forever and that family forever and yet, there is some separation between the actual voice 

who makes that notification. 

Donelan 

24:57 

You know, on this show we talk a lot, and that’s what I love about The Beat. We talk a lot about ways 

that law enforcement agencies and the law enforcement community overall across this country are 

trying to be innovative and creating new ways to improve their relationships with the community. And it 

really comes down to being thoughtful and the increase in that. It’s no longer like, “This is just the way 

we do it and we’re going to keep doing it that way.” They’re becoming more thoughtful about every 

single aspect of what they do. 

What has been the... And I know, you’ve touched on this in the beginning, we have 18,000 law 

enforcement agencies in the country. And I know that they are all trying to be innovative and thoughtful 

about improving relationships with the community, just because of what has gone over the past several 

years. This seems to be, to me, such a critical piece and even if it’s not necessarily the next of kin 

notification, it’s just that process of going through this training causes you to think, that it opens your 

mind to thinking about what else are we not doing right. 

Beers 

26:02 

Absolutely. And I’ll tell you, it actually generates great conversation. You know, what are the plans in 

your departments, in your agencies? What are the plans for a line of duty death? What are the plans for 

a mass violence incident? Law enforcement often focuses on the tactical response, which completely 

understand. You know, we’ve got to mobilize, and we have to neutralize the cause of this traumatic 

incident and yet, there is phase two. And it really should be a parallel process, in that, what about the 

victims and how are we going to support the victims? And what does this look like? 

So, looking at the crisis response plans for the community, where is trauma notification built into it? 

Where is family assistant built into it? And who are you going to assign to that role? So, it really is a 

much bigger response than just making a notification and trauma notification is a piece of the puzzle 

and a much larger puzzle. Frankly, it’s one piece of the larger puzzle. 

Donelan 

26:53 

Exactly. What has me thinking about this, for instance, let’s say you have an LGBTQ victim, and you need 

to be thoughtful about that. And perhaps your agency has an LGBTQ affairs unit— 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Beers 

27:05 

Mm-hmm. 

Donelan 

27:05 

—already established, but perhaps you don’t. And just the process of thinking about this and realizing, 

“Gosh, we really don’t have anybody. We don’t have anything for this.” It causes that next step, which is 

one good thing begets another in my opinion. 

Beers 

27:18 

It absolutely is and we’re very lucky in the FBI. We have 10 directors’ advisory committees involving all 

different kinds of backgrounds, whether it’s bureau quality, whether it is the Native American 

population, women’s group, veterans, all those kinds of things. One of the things that we talk about in 

this training is think about your local faith leaders. When we think about law enforcement kind of 

bridging the gap with their community and looking at innovation, I think a lot of agencies probably 

already have relationships with their faith leaders. And yet, how else can they use their faith leaders?So, 

for example, if we’re going out to respond to a house of worship or a faith community, are we reaching 

out to the leader saying, “Hey, can you partner with us to do this?” Because they have a lot of times the 

instant rapport in the community, and they can be the ambassadors for law enforcement in those 

communities. Again, looking at how we can use community leaders to help us interact with the 

community, I think is key. 

Donelan 

28:12 

And thus improving relationships with our communities, which is just— 

Beers 

28:16 

Yes. 

Donelan 

28:16 

—phenomenal. Talk to me a little bit about a mass incident when you have multiple victims, multiple 

families, multiple next of kin notifications. How does one prepare for that? Because you notify one 

family, word gets to the next family. How do you account for that? What’s your best practice 

recommendation there? 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beers 

28:36 

The best practice for this is that each family has their own team of two, so if you have 12 deceased 

individuals you would have 24 trained team members. You would have a team of two assigned to each 

family. A lot of times they descend on the friends and family reception center, so making sure that they 

have private space that’s away from the media, that’s private for them. A lot of time it takes a minute 

for victims to be identified and so the coroner or medical examiner’s office is working very quick to do 

that, but methodically, so it can take sometimes hours. 

And so, what we find is best practice is in that time that that’s happening, somebody from leadership, 

local law enforcement, meeting with those families, coming in perhaps every hour saying, “We know 

that you want to be notified and to find out if your loved one was in this location. We are doing 

everything we possibly can. We want to make sure that whenever we do notifications, they’re 100 

percent certain. You know, I’ll be back in another hour to brief you, even if I don’t have anything to say 

to you.” That is best practice. 

The other thing is that when it’s time to do notification, let’s say we have all 10 victims identified. It’s a 

really good idea to do simultaneous notifications. The last thing you want is whisper down the alley. And 

so, if that means that we’re at somebody’s home then it’s a text message to the team saying, “Green 

light. Been confirmed. Make your notification.” 

In these mass violence incidents, a lot of times we are merely confirming the death of their loved one. 

Because with social media and, you know, kids in school, they’re already sharing that information. So 

sometimes, we are the messenger and we’re met with a lot of anger because families want to know, 

“Well, why do we hear from somebody else and not you?” And the answer is we want to make sure we 

have 100 percent identification before we’re doing the notification. 

Now, does that make families feel better? No, it doesn’t, but it’s the truth. And I think that’s the other 

thing, making sure that we’re being truthful, honest, transparent with victims. If I’ve heard it once, I’ve 

heard 100 times from law enforcement. “You know, we can’t tell the victims that it’s an open 

investigation.” And I will tell you that being here over the past 12 years, the agents that I work with, 

they’re incredible with victims. And so, they don’t talk about what they can’t say to victims. They really 

talk about, “Okay, well, what can we say?” We can say this is an open investigation. We can say that we 

are doing our very best to try to get as many answers as possible. There’s things that you can say and so, 

instead of focusing on what we can’t say, let’s focus on those things that we are able to share. 

Donelan 

30:59 

You know, so much of this, as you sit here and talk about it, I keep thinking in the back of my mind, how 

would I want to be treated if it was my family? Or how would I want my mother treated if it was news 

that was being delivered about me? So, I’m thinking about those listeners who have, say, 30 officers and 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we don’t have a victim specialist on staff. This training, how much of it is this is compassion, it’s common 

sense, it’s “do unto others as you would want done upon you,” and that this is doable even if you don’t 

have the “victim specialist expert” on staff? 

Beers 

31:32 

It is doable, because you might have chaplains and as I said, you might have those local faith leaders that 

you can bring into your agency to help you do this, so that you actually have force multipliers. You also 

might have victim advocates in a neighboring department, so maybe you have that conversation with 

that other department. So, I think the whole part of this is really planning on what this could look like in 

each community. 

Donelan 

31:53 

You know, while I have you, Dr. Beers, we talked about the fact that you work with canines. And I’m 

starting to see more and more of that, with departments bringing on compassion canines to not only 

deal with their own personnel, but to also, they bring them along for these types of interactions. Are you 

seeing that starting to grow? And, and what do you think about the introduction of a therapy animal in 

those type settings? Is it, again, then just depend on what is the circumstances of this particular 

situation? 

Beers 

32:22 

It does. One of the things that I will say is that, first of all, this could be a completely separate different 

podcast. 

Donelan 

32:28 

Absolutely. 

Beers 

32:29 

It’s our position that we use facility dogs, and we do not use therapy dogs, because we work in a law 

enforcement agency and a lot of times the cases we are involved with involve an investigation. There’s a 

whole process for facility dogs in their certification, so we don’t use therapy dogs here. We have two 

facility dogs and, yeah, I could get into a lot of that. 

Donelan 

32:48 

I bet. I bet. We’re going to have you back to talk about the canine aspect, because that’s certainly really 

interesting. And I’m just starting to see more bend and more acceptance of those types of animals into 

the law enforcement and to first responders agencies across the board. 
 

Beers 

33:03 

And it’s very different. 

Donelan 

33:03 

You’re seeing it in fire departments. 

Beers 

33:05 

Yeah, it’s different. They’re there to support their staff. It’s very different when they’re interacting with 

victims. 

Donelan 

33:11 

Mm-hmm. One thing we haven’t talked about is the investigation, right? 

Beers 

33:14 

Mm-hmm. 

Donelan 

33:15 

So, in terms of the notification, in terms of establishing that relationship with the family and delivering 

this news very directly, there’s also the investigation that oftentimes the person that’s delivering the 

news has to turn around and then continue with their investigation. Do you account for that in the 

training? 

Beers 

33:32 

Yeah, it is hard because in the smaller departments you don’t really have choices. And so, you know, 

sometimes you’re coming from the scene and we always do a little uniform check or whatever you’re 

wearing to make sure, you know, one on one, that there’s no blood, there’s no evidence on you when 

you’re going to knock on the door. That might seem, you know, common sense but when people’s 

adrenaline are moving, you know, a lot of times we’re just going, right? So— 

Donelan 

33:54 

Right. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Beers 

33:54 

—we do talk about that. The one thing that we know is that when you’re working closely with the victim 

family and you’re the one in charge of the investigation, you’re human, right? So, you get close with 

them. The one difference that we make in our training is that if we have a situation where we have the 

death of a subject or the person that committed the crime, and their family is getting the notification, a 

completely separate team should be interacting with the victims. So, you should have a team that’s 

doing the subject family notification and another team working with the victims and that’s really, really 

important. You know, victims have told us, you know, over and over again, “You’re working with us,” like 

they deserve to have that 100 percent separation. 

Donelan 

34:30 

Got me thinking because my favorite shows to watch are British crime, British police shows. And I see 

that they always have a family officer. 

Beers 

34:37 

Yep. 

Donelan 

34:38 

And I don’t see that here in the United States. 

Beers 

34:39 

Yeah. 

Donelan 

34:40 

So, one of the things I wanted to ask you if it’s okay, do you see models elsewhere in Europe, where 

they have dedicated family officers and they do exactly what you just described? Where they have one 

separate officer who deals with the notification and working with the family and then the investigative 

officer is someone completely different. 

Beers 

34:59 

You know, it’s varied. It really is varied all across the world, so I know in the United Kingdom, they have 

Family Liaison Officers, FLOs. And yet in other countries, that’s not the case, so I know it varies by 

country. 
 

 

 

 

 

Donelan 

35:12 

In your opinion, is it a good idea? 

Beers 

35:14 

You know, I think the whole point is this, as long as people are trained, you know, you could have the 

best law enforcement officer in the world who can solve the hardest crimes, but they might not be the 

best person to talk to victims, and I can’t stress that enough. Just because you’re a great investigator 

doesn’t mean that you are the best in talking with victims. 

Donelan 

35:32 

And that’s okay? 

Beers 

35:34 

Yeah, it totally is okay. We all have our strengths, so that’s what I would say. I mean, there’s training 

that goes into it. I’ve seen some other countries where they have the FLO, the Family Liaison Officer is 

the same one that’s working on the investigation, and the water gets really muddy. And you know, who 

you align with. You’re aligned with your agency. And when your agency asks you to do something and 

take on an investigation, that’s your priority, and then the victims kind of fall by the wayside, so that can 

be problematic. 

Donelan 

35:59 

So, just generally, could you share some insight on post notification resources that people may not be 

thinking about, but that are out there, that can be offered to families or the next of kin? 

Beers 

36:13 

Absolutely. So, there’s a lot of different resources out there. There’s some national resources out there. 

And one of the things that I can say is that it’s best practice really for looking at victim services agencies 

within that community, even though law enforcement may not have a victim advocate. Looking within 

the community for victim services agencies, sometimes even in the prosecutor’s office, sometimes the 

medical examiner’s and coroner’s offices, they have incredible grief resources. 

The other thing is, when someone is killed in a crime, victims can often apply for crime victims’ 

compensation and that’s available in all states. The amounts that are paid out are a little different per 

state, but crime victims’ compensation is a wonderful resource for victims who have lost a loved one or 

had a loved one killed in a crime.
 

 

 

 

 

Donelan 

36:57 

When you’re talking about the notification, is that something that those who are bearing the message, 

it’s good information to be armed with, to have in their toolbox? 

Beers 

37:06 

It is, and on the online portal, there is a coping with grief brochure that lists a lot of the national 

resources. That brochure is actually translated into 10 different languages, and so they can be 

downloaded, and they can be given to the victim families. But yeah, arming oneself with resources can 

be really, really helpful. 

Donelan 

37:25 

I have absolutely loved our conversation and I want to make sure people know how to find the training, 

find the website, and all of that. So, can you go through that one more time about the name of the 

training and where to find it. 

Beers 

37:36 

So, the name of the training, again, is We Regret to Inform You. We worked with Penn State University 

to develop it. It is hosted on their servers, so the training can be found at 

www.deathnotification.psu.edu, which is W-W-W-dot-D-E-A-T-H-N-O-T-I-F-I-C-A-T-I-O-N-dot-P-S-U-dotE-D-U. We are going to be updating this training. We are going to be adding a few more videos to it, the 

videos on best practice and videos on not best practice, so that law enforcement can take a look at it 

and see how we can correct it. 

Donelan 

38:21 

And then I hear there’s exciting news: You’re going to be developing an app? 

Beers 

38:24 

Yes, so the app is forthcoming. And we’re going to be working with our Office of Public Affairs to launch 

this out to our law enforcement partners. And so, it’s in its beta form right now getting tested and as 

soon as it’s ready to go, we’re happy to launch it. 

Donelan 

38:39 

That’s going to be phenomenal to have that guidance right there in the palm of your hand. That’s really 

exciting. 
 

 

 

 

Beers 

38:43 

Mm-hmm. 

Donelan 

38:44 

Thanks for sharing that with our listeners on The Beat. So, if anybody wants to get in touch with you, 

how would they do that? 

Beers 

38:50 

The best way to get in touch with me is through the following email. It is 

traumanotificationteam@fbi.gov, which is T-R-A-U-M-A-N-O-T-I-F-I-C-A-T-I-O-N-T-E-A-M-at-F-B-I-dot-GO-V. 

Donelan 

39:10 

Dr. Beers, I cannot thank you enough for spending this time with us and talking about this topic. I wish it 

wasn’t one that we had to talk about, but unfortunately it is. But I think that you have offered a light in 

an effort to help people navigate through this so that we can be better together. It’s just phenomenal. 

Thank you so much. 

Beers 

39:32 

You’re welcome. Thank you very much for this opportunity. 

Donelan 

39:35 

Absolutely. And thank you, everyone, for joining us here on The Beat. 

Voiceover: The Beat Exit 

39:39 

The Beat is brought to you by the United States Department of Justice’s COPS Office. The COPS Office 

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Voiceover: Disclaimer 

40:36 

The opinions contained herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official 

position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific agencies, companies, 

products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the authors or the U.S. Department 

of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues.